1. Field
An ultraviolet (UV) sterilization lamp, an UV sterilization module, and an air conditioner including a UV sterilization module are disclosed herein.
2. Background
Generally, a UV lamp is used in various fields so as to sterilize bacteria and fungus by generating UV rays. As the UV lamp is in the form of a lamp, the UV lamp may be appropriately used with simple manipulation when necessary. Further, installation costs and maintenance costs of the UV lamp are inexpensive. Moreover, as UV rays generated by the UV lamp are hardly changed, the UV rays continuously maintain a same sterilizing power.
The UV lamp generates UV rays having various wavelengths according to a material used therein. For example, the UV lamp may generate UV-A (wavelength of 400 nm to 315 nm), UV-B (wavelength of 15 nm to 280 nm), or UV-C (wavelength of 280 nm to 110 nm), for example. Among these wavelength, the UV rays having a wavelength of 253.7 nm at a wavelength corresponding to the UV-C have a strongest sterilizing power. When the UV-C is irradiated to a DNA of the bacteria and fungus, the DNA of the bacteria and fungus is damaged and destroyed. That is, the UV rays damage a DNA of a living organism and has an effective sterilizing power with respect to various bacteria.
Therefore, sterilization using the UV lamp is more efficient than sterilization by heat, sterilization by chemicals, sterilization by ozone, and sterilization by radiation, for example. However, as the UV rays damage the DNA of the living organism, great care is needed not to irradiate the UV rays to people, for example.
On the other hand, the sterilization is effective only when the UV lamp receives power and generates the UV rays. Thus, an important issue is to improve a lifespan of the UV sterilization lamp.
Further, in order to exhibit a sterilizing power to sterilize various bacteria, the UV rays generated by the UV sterilization lamp needs to be uniformly irradiated for a predetermined period of time. Thus, another important issue is to irradiate uniform UV rays on a uniform plane.
For example, as disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2003-0091688, which is entitled “AIR CONDITIONER” and hereby incorporated by reference, a UV lamp may be installed in an air conditioner. However, the prior art UV lamp is large in size, and thus, has a shortcoming in terms of space efficiency and air channel.
Further, even when a large-sized UV lamp is installed, a uniform plane may not be uniformly sterilized. Moreover, the large-sized UV lamp has high power consumption. When a large number of UV lamps is used, electric charges may be increased due to an increase in power facility expansion costs and power consumption for satisfying power to be consumed.